Ram Sethu not integral part of Hinduism: Govt tells apex court

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that Rama Sethu is not an ���essential��� and ���integral��� part of Hindu religion. ���It has not been proved undoubtedly to be the belief of the Hindu community that Lord Rama did not himself break the bridge. Nor has it been established that whatever remains of the Rama Sethu as a piece of worship is an essential and integral part of the Hindu religion,��� the UPA government said in its written submission.

Centre���s counsel Fali S Nariman on Tuesday, appearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, sought permission to place on record government���s submissions.

The government stand assumes importance as on the last hearing on July 30 it had assured the court that it was considering the possibility of pushing the project through an alternative alignment to avoid any damage to ���Rama Sethu��� for which an expert committee has been set up.

However, it persisted with the argument that Rama Sethu or Adams Bridge was broken by Lord Rama while returning from Sri Lanka and as such ���anything broken could not be worshipped.��� It said that the opponents of the project have not proved that Rama Sethu forms an ���integral��� and ���essential��� part of Hindu religion and has to be protected.

���A religious belief or practice which is not an essential and integral part of the religion is not protected by Article 25 or 26 of the Constitution���, the Centre said and quoted various previous judgments of the apex court to drive home its point.

Following the government assurance in July that it was considering an alternative alignment for the project, the PMO had set up an expert committee headed by noted scientist R K Pachauri to look into the suggestion.